IF, 4:3, 5:2 - Maintaining a healthy weight - Chapter 3

[Talkinpeace]

This thread is for those who have been practicing IF (Intermittent Fasting) for quite a while and are now at, or nearing, their target healthy weight.
It's also for anyone who is doing it for the health benefits alone.

How do we experience fasts and balance a stable food intake while having little or no weight to lose?
How do we ensure that this WOL keeps us at the healthy weight long term rather than revert to yoyo games?
How do we ensure that we keep ourselves looking great rather than just thin?

Many of us have been maintaining at our original goal weight for a few months, and others are joining all the time.
Obviously, the more the merrier!
It is also worth considering whether a second, leaner target might be achievable.

You'll find the first two maintenance threads and all the main 5:2 threads for posters practicing IF to lose weight here on the Fasting / 5:2 on the diet forum. We're currently on thread no. 23, but there is a new main thread every 2-3 weeks.

There are two other associated threads:
This one, which is an absolute goldmine of Tips and Links on how to practice IF, and the research behind it.

And here is a treasure trove of 5:2 recipes, mostly low calorie for fasting days, but there are also recipes for when you want to treat yourself. And, now we're maintaining, we'll need more of these!

PS thanks to Breadandwine (proof that this forum welcomes everybody, not just Mums) for setting up the last thread while my old name that set up the first one was on 'holiday'

Thank you TIP :)

I was hoping you would give me some good advice...and you did.

Maybe I am searching for compliments? (This is an old diet-related phenomena you may know of, and somewhat embarrassing.)

You are of course right. I do know what my body looks and feels like. It is steadily firming up as I do yoga, walk (and run) more all the time.

The proof is in the trousers that fit easily. If they start to get tight again that's the time I should start to worry...and I will heed my own advice: that my body will decide for itself as long as I treat it with use respect.

Thanks for being there.

...I mean : DUE respect...

It really does come to getting in the habit of clothes that fit (non stretch jeans etc) and reading from THEM how you are doing ...

get a (beautiful) ribbon and tie it around your waist.
If its slack you have lost, if it digs in, you have gained.

That's what I more or less do with my belt. Being male, I wear the same belt every day, and it's easy to see if my waist is increasing in size - which is what is does every week between fasts.

B&W That's what my DH does, uses his belt to gauge his weight loss or gain. He's naturally of slim build and was an 8.5 stone weakling in his teens then built himself up with weights. Now at 66 he's doing 6:1 to keep himself in check and every now and then has to let it out a notch or two (he's usually a 32" waist and hates it when he gains). He'll correct it by missing breakfast for a couple of days and then it's usually back to normal - I'm really jealous as it seems to just melt off him

vintage I gained 3 new notches in my belt doing 5:2, and I thought of adding another one at one stage. I'm determined not to surrender any of my notches - so this serves as a wake-up call if ever I get too close!

B&W I think it's a great idea and so much better than those dreaded scales which seem to indicate you've put on weight just by breathing heavily - doh!

So sorry Anglaise . At least now you know. Look after your self, and if you are ever in La Rochelle again (out of season when there are no tourists and it really is lovely) let me know and we could meet up.

I do try to measure myself in my clothes too, I have two pairs of shorts that I'm trying to get comfortable in again. They fit and I can do them up and wear them but they're a bit tight.

I watched "Vegucated" on Netflix last night as in thinking of doing a family vegan challenge for a week, mainly just to reinvigorate more interesting food into the rut of cheese sandwiches and on letters we seem to be in. I've always tried to buy meat, eggs and milk that seems to be treated well but dear god that programme opened my eyes. We don't eat much meat anymore anyway precisely because I don't trust American labeling but now going to make a big effort to hunt down pastured raised meats only and think I'm going to have to give up poultry altogether as none of the currently (very lacking) animal welfare laws here cover birds. Going to my local cooperative today to talk to them about locally sourced eggs though.

I don't really mind the idea of animals being raised and killed for human consumption but the treatment of them in life and death is important. Quite aside from all the environmental and health factors

Thoughts?

ATB
The USA has an attitude to farming that does not fit with the European approach.
I buy all my meat from a butcher who happily gives the addresses of the farms, or from Waitrose who own the farms
American meat is utterly tasteless compared with the stuff I buy
and silly thing : I sent my dad (in NYC) a pressie of Stilton as you cannot get decent blue cheese in NYC

here, all the beef I buy is open grazed, all the chickens are non caged, Waitrose stopped selling cage eggs years ago, prophylactic antibiotics were outlawed in the EU years ago

but in the US, even Wegmans and the IGA pile it high and sell it (not very cheap)
notice the lack of lamb in the USA as it cannot be raised indoors ....

I don't think cage free is good enough in any country. I know standards aren't as good in the USA as the UK but I also question the treatment of animals all over the western world - pig rearing particularly and chicken farming in the UK leave a lot to be desired. And that's before we go into environmental and health issues.

I don't think it's realistic for my family to go vegan, but I am going to start paying even more attention to food labeling, I thought I was pretty sure of where my meat came from already but now I'm reevaluating.

And I don't eat lamb in the US, it's all shipped here from NZ and nothing tastes as good as hill roaming Welsh Lamb.

I'm also not sure how I feel any more about the fact that female cows are artificially inseminated and forced to bear calves they are separated from within 24hours. I honestly don't think, unless you're rearing the animals yourself, you have no true guarantee of welfare standards.

AI came in in the 1950s : its as much to do with welfare as anything : the bulls have been bred so heavy they would damage the cows if ever given the chance to shag!
And removing calves from their mothers : again long standing and worldwide - the only way to keep them in milk regardless of the season

Friends reared their own three turkeys one year. Real concern that the kids would get attached to them. Nope. They were so thick and annoying that the boys (10 and 7) gleefully served them up to us all one lunch!

The other thing to bear in mind is that if we stopped eating meat, we'd stop raising animals, so stop needing hedges : you've seen the great plains and on a lesser scale the agridesert that is East Anglia ....

Just because it's been around a long time doesn't make it ok! I know that's the only way to keep the milk coming, hence me contemplating a reduction in my family's milk intake

There is no way the whole world will become vegetarian and if all animals were kept and killed humanely I'd have less of a problem but still think a big reduction would help our environment - enough animals to parade around our countryside in blissful semi freedom and killed instantly without pain or torture, enough of them for us to benefit from eating meat once in a while and I'm sold.

Daily intakes of animal products for everyone across the globe? Major stress on natural resources, increase in avoidable health related disease in humans and inevitable inhumane farming practices in order to produce enough animal products on that kind of scale.

I think I'm probably approaching it in the same way as I do energy saving - a global movement towards energy saving bulbs and electrical devices is making small but important changes; a shift towards a more plant based diet would surely produce the same thing?

Ps I grew up surrounded by dairy farms, local pig farms, helped in lambing season and we reared our own pigs and chickens for family consumption. I know good practice can exist and am not squeamish overall about raising animals for human consumption

Sorry, just typing as I think - my point is labeling is incomplete, you think you are getting something that you're not, if it matters to you (presumably if you buy free range rather than battery farmed eggs it does?), but as a family who have naturally gravitated towards a more vegetarian diet precisely because of concerns over animal welfare, environment and health, I feel deluded about other animal products I have up til now been buying in good faith

:-) I'm a HUGE believer in local food - and we are lucky round here to have lots of good producers
but yes, visiting other parts of the world does put the "footprint" into perspective.

Quite, and I'm very much looking forward to heading back to my mums sleepy corner of west Sussex where the local butcher has fairly good knowledge and we know the local cow farmer so at least I know where my beef and milk is coming from and that it is humane

And removing calves from their mothers : again long standing and worldwide - the only way to keep them in milk regardless of the season

That's exactly why I gave up dairy and became a vegan - that and the fact that as soon as the cow's output reduces around the age of 6, they're off to the abattoir, when they could live around 30 years.

Others may be comfortable with all that, I'm not.

The other thing to bear in mind is that if we stopped eating meat, we'd stop raising animals, so stop needing hedges

There's no possibility of people giving up meat in the near future, Tip, your fears are groundless. What I'd like to see happen is that people will just eat less of it - as much for their own health as for the environment and animal welfare.

It's easy being vegan over here in the UK, though it's very easy to eat too much soy. I eat tofu very rarely - mainly rely on legumes for protein, I love 'em - lots of seitan, which is very good. Pateole mushroom pate I eat a lot of - contains a little soy, but not much.

Sweet stuff is my downfall - soya ice-cream and custard, soya chocolate puddings, soya single cream. I'm good at thinking out of the box with savoury stuff - not so good with the puds.

Need to get my head around sorbets, methinks!

Just re-reading your 'going vegan for a week' comment, ATB, I think I should try and go without soya for a week. Should be doable.

I'll let you know how I get on with that.

Had another NSV today - in recognition of how fit I am, I've been released from the Lung Clinic!

I've been suffering from a mild form of COPD for the past 20-odd years - after giving up smoking 40 years or more ago. My lungs were damaged and I suffered from bronchitis for 20 years or so without knowing it.

I've put it all up on my blog, but basically, my chest is absolutely clear, my blood oxygen levels are 98% and my peak flow rate is marginally better than last year - so they've told me I don't have to come back again!

nobreadisanisland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/intermittent-fasting-for-18-months-now.html

Wow oh wow B&W that is fantastic news.

I agree about gouing veggie / vegan for periods of time. Since starting fasting our whole family has cut down on meat. And what we do buy is chosen 'concoiusly' iyswim.

Then again, about to go to France for 2 weeks .....

B&W congrats on being released from the lung clinic!
TIP no, France isn't a great place for vegetarians, especially where I am in Brittany! Although in Rennes there are a few vegetarian restaurants now, but I've still yet to meet a French veggie.
I had some guests in my gites (they came back a few times) who were vegan, I don't know how they managed.
Where are you going to in France?
I'm still not fasting 'cos not eating much, but not losing anymore weight. My car died yesterday, just before a bank holiday weekend and in August (everything is shut) so it hasn't been my best week all in all, lol.
Onwards and upwards.

Anglaise hang in there, things can only get better

B&W well done on the lung news. You are a really good example of not only how to do IF successfully and maintain it, but also proof that the health benefits are real. I salute you

Thanks vintage52er am feeling better and it is his loss. I've never been jealous before and the fact that I was with him and was proved right on more than one occasion speaks volumes.
Wildwater totally agree about the ribbon trick! This BMI calculator also gives you more of an insight in to BMI as you can calculate and enter your frame size as well as height and weight.
I'm tall and small frame so a BMI of 18.5 is fine for me. It wouldn't be if I had a large frame.

B&W Phenomenal news, wow, just wow

Great news B&W! Thats great...also I need to go back over your blog for my week of veganism, I'm sure I can find alternatives that aren't soy based but the big challenge will be finding a substitute for the go-to scrambled eggs that seem to form part of at least one of DD's meals every day fussy bugger

Thanks, folks!

Anglaise you're well rid of that tosser, some blokes don't know when they're well off!

I've been at the cricket since I left work at 4 (Somerset beat Yorkshire in the last over of a thrilling game - since you asked! )

Then, since my wife has left me for the night, I went straight to my friends house where we played bridge all evening - with wine and nibbles.

I got home about 11.20 - and, since then, I've been casting round for something to eat. I'm surrounded by loads of food, both savoury and sweet, and I could have what I liked, when I liked. (No disapproving murmurs from my dear heart!)

I've been through the fridge; Thought about a cake in a mug - with Alpro custard; Pondered a crepe suzette (my version takes no time at all) - with some Benedictine and soya cream; Contemplated some tinned fruit with Swedish Glace ice cream (chocolate flavour-gorgeous) - with added Benedictine.

I've considered Laska's leftover aubergine and chickpea curry* with oven chips; Mulled over a socca wrap with the curry; Flirted with fried polony, tomatoes and chips.

But - I've been unable to make up my mind! I've not been able to decide one way or the other.

And, waddya know? Whilst I was doing all that, my hunger switch was slowly re-setting - and I've just realised, I no longer want anything to eat!! (Typing this at 12.20)

I know I say this over and over - but there's dramatic proof. Just give yourself some time, and the desire for food will fade. Sometimes it takes longer than others, but it will happen.

• Laska I've held off having your curry until high summer (aubergines are not in season in winter, I'm afraid), and I echo what everyone else says, it's absolutely lovely - thanks!

I made a big pot of it, and I'll have the remainder tomorrow for dinner.

I'll have to play around with this - perhaps butter beans instead of chick peas - maybe squash instead of aubergine - but I'll keep the spinach, methinks!

Cheers, B&W